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A Wahiawa couple planning to spend their evening Christmas shopping ended up spending the night in the hospital instead, following a fiery crash on the H-1 Freeway.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hoshang Naderi and his wife were driving down the freeway toward Kapolei in their Nissan Cube, when Naderi noticed a semi-trailer truck to his right.

He saw a tire blow off, then the driver lost control and came into Naderi’s lane. Naderi crashed into the guardrail.

“For a minute, I thought, ‘Oh God, this is it,’ you know? The end is near,” he told KHON2.

The impact knocked Naderi’s wife out cold.

“The car flew up in the air, landed on the side, because I was literally staring at my wife sideways,” Naderi recalled. “She was below me, and then it started rolling. I literally could count three rolls.”

When the car landed, Naderi’s military training kicked in. He pulled his wife out of the vehicle before it went up in flames. Both suffered serious injuries and their vehicle was a total loss.

“This possibly could have been avoided if the cement company guy checked his vehicle prior to getting on the highway,” he said. “I mean, somebody could have easily been killed. It’s a miracle I’m standing here right now, talking to you.”

Naderi says he filed a police report and is seeking answers.

According to Emergency Medical Services, the 69-year-old truck driver was also hospitalized in serious condition. We reached out to the trucking company and an employee told us the driver is fine.

Alan Batty, president of American Tire Company, says truck drivers should do a pre-check before getting behind the wheel.

“Walk around the vehicle, check it for safety issues, look for flat tires,” he said.

Batty says when a tire blows off any vehicle, it’s usually from low tire pressure.

“Another is what we call a road hazard. Hitting a pothole, running over metal. That’ll lose tire. That’ll blow out,” he said.

HPD is investigating the crash.

Naderi also tells me in the chaos, he dropped his wallet. He got it back, but $500 in cash remained missing.

“We were actually going to go eat dinner and afterward, I was going to go to Costco and buy my daughter a gift for Christmas,” Naderi said. “At that moment, when you see a car in flames, people are hurt, for you to do that, I don’t see it being, what’s the correct word, humane, I guess.”